I don't like Mick Jagger's voice so I'm not a Rolling Stones fan, and normally wouldn't have read this book. But all of the NY Times' book reviewers put it in their lists of top books in 2010, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's surprisingly good. Not the party-hearty memoir I was expecting. A fair amount of discussion about music theory and how it plays out in the Stones' music, which was totally unexpected and really interesting. I really liked reading about how some of the most famous songs were written; it makes me want to listen to the Stones. Richards also has some laugh-out-loud lines and interesting metaphors, like how his young son, his son's drunk minder, and his father spend a few years like lieutenants on half-pay, drifting from one deserted mansion to another. Later he mentions how much he likes the Aubrey-Maturin books (though I definitely don't agree with either his statement that nothing was happening with land battles at the time (*cough* Waterloo *cough*), or that he and Mick Jagger are like Aubrey and Maturin), which explains where the image comes from.

Richards has both an odd sense of honesty about his actions and a total lack of understanding of how they affected other people. For instance, CPS should absolutely have taken his son away from him and his partner, neither one of whom had any sense of responsibility and were way more interested in getting their next fix than being a halfway decent parent. Richards describes the horrible living situation that he leaves his son in, without any apparent realization that his kid might have suffered. He merely says, "Marlon had a unique upbringing." Like being raised by and around junkies was an asset.